There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. To this chiefly it is owing that we find sects and parties in most branches of science [and politics]; and disputes that are carried on from age to age, without being brought to issue.
Interpretation
Ambiguity in language hinders our understanding and progress in knowledge and leads to persistent disputes.
In this quote, Thomas Reid argues that unclear language is a significant barrier to the advancement of knowledge. He suggests that the ambiguity of words produces confusion, which gives rise to divisions among people in various fields, including science and politics, resulting in unresolved disputes that can endure for generations.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of clear communication in science.
The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules. The laws of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.
It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.
Every indication of wisdom, taken from the effect, is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.
To cease from evil, to do good, and to purify the mind yourself, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
H. G. Wells was not the only one to mention Churchill and Hitler in the same breath: "Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. Man may be suppressed in this manner but he cannot be changed. Ahimsa [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], on the other hand, can change human nature and sooner than men like Churchill and Hitler."
To accept civilization as it is practically means accepting decay.
Life is lived forward but is judged in reverse.
Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.
Human language can but imperfectly describe God's ways. I am sensible of the fact that they are indescribable and inscrutable. But if mortal man will dare to describe them, he has no better medium than his own inarticulate speech.
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